Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Hybrid optical code scanners (hybrid scanner) are used to read optical codes such as one dimensional (1D) and two dimensional (2D) barcodes. A hybrid scanner includes two optical code scanners that are based on different scanning technologies. One of the optical code scanners is based on laser scanning technology and is referred to as a laser scanner. The laser scanner moves a laser beam across an optical code and captures the reflected laser light to read the optical code. The other optical code scanner is based on imaging scanning technology and is called an imaging scanner. The imaging scanner captures an image of the entire optical code and processes the image to read the optical code.
One dimensional barcodes have been optimized to be read by a laser scanner. However, two dimensional barcodes are not easily read by a laser scanner. In addition, a laser scanner cannot capture an image of a photo or read a barcode being displayed by an electronic device. Imaging scanner can read two dimensional barcodes and capture images of photos but their field of view and depth of field is smaller than the field of view and depth of field for a laser scanner. Because of the smaller fields for imaging scanner, it is critical that a two dimensional barcode or a photo be properly positioned in the imaging scanner's sweet spot before the imaging scanner is able to capture a good quality image.
Therefore, there is a need for a hybrid optical code scanner that provides an effective way to properly align optical codes with the imaging scanner of the hybrid optical code scanner.